Today in Labor History Feb 14 Miners strike for 8-hour day, 1,100 former strikers reinstated, more

[Omaha Steve]

February 14


February 14, 1817 - Anti-slavery activist Frederick Douglass was born. “Power concedes nothing without a demand,” he said. “It never did and never will.”


Western Federation of Miners strike for 8-hour day - 1903

President Theodore Roosevelt creates the Department of Commerce and Labor. It was divided into two separate government departments ten years later - 1903

Jimmy Hoffa born in Brazil, Indiana, son of a coal miner. Disappeared July 30, 1975, declared dead seven years later – 1913

February 14, 1915 - Between 8,000 and 10,000 unemployed workers turned out for a rally at Gateway Park and a march up Nicollet Avenue in sleet and slush, ending at the Minneapolis Courthouse, where they listened to speeches.

Striking workers at Detroit’s newspapers, out since the previous July, offer to return to work. The offer is accepted five days later but the newspapers vow to retain some 1,200 scabs. A court ruling the following year ordered as many as 1,100 former strikers reinstated - 1996

Labor history found he: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_02_14_2011